Wish there was a way to easily find your smartphone when you've dropped it under a sofa cushion or the dog ran off with it?

If you have an Android-based phone, Google may be able to help.

The company announced in a Google+ post late Wednesday that users now can use Google search to find their missing phone.

"We've all been there -- you've searched under your car seat, tossed around the sofa cushions and you still can't find your phone," the company wrote. "If you know where your computer is, you can now ask Google to find your Android phone from your desktop."

Using the latest version of Google's search app for Android, signing into your Google account on your PC and typing "Find my phone" into the search field, the company can ring the phone for you. If the phone isn't under a book on the coffee table, Google can show you where it is on a map – in case you left it at the office or in a coffee shop.

"It's not an earthshaking feature," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, "but I'd bet that it's one that really connects with consumers and might even garner Google even more market share."

But why stop with just smartphones?

"I'm betting that some bright person will come out with something that you can attach to objects that will allow them to be searched in the same way," Olds said.

This story, "Where did I leave my Android phone? Google it" was originally published by
Computerworld.